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Black Forest Cookie’s head spun. The floor tilted into the ceiling and the ceiling whirled into the carpeted tile beneath her knees. She looked up, catching the glinting reflection of the chandelier as her hair curled to the floor. Clutched tightly in her fists was her bouquet. Squeezing it again, a cherry dropped to the ground with a dollop of white cream. Nothing in this world would stop her, she thought, slowly. Nothing in the world could, she decided, managing to her feet.
***
The dawn of her decision pushed Black Forest Cookie out of her quarters. All of the Cookies at the Sanctuary stayed in dormitories that lead out into the churchyard. There was a fountain brimming with crystalline water, and fluffy flocks of marshmallow birds would take to the skies upon even the quietest footsteps toward the fountain. Black Forest Cookie watched them fly; only her most serene thoughts sailed through her mind, as fluttery as those birdlings. She felt in her chest with a warm tingle that They were the ones who honored her eyes with such beautiful sights.
Her usual trek through the Saint Pastry churchyard had a special detour today. For today marked her decision to begin her wedding plans. All of the signs had appeared to Black Forest Cookie in the weeks leading up to this momentous occasion.
She took to the church gardens for her first step. As she waltzed into the garden shed, cocoa powder and cinnamon crumbled from the shaky wooden walls, creaking like aching bones. She mapped in her head the best place next to go, who would be awake, where they would be. The monotony of the pastry sanctuary was blissful to Black Forest Cookie as anything else in her small life. She did not regard the way everyone moved through the same routine to be a mark of something off or disturbing. The thing that granted Black Forest Cookie so much light in her soul was her most inexorable loves.
Swiping dust from her creamy clothes, careful to not get speckles of brown sugar mixed in to the swirls of cream, Black Forest Cookie scanned the shed for the trimmer. Normally the gardener would have tea and breakfast before tending to the flowers and herbs, so with dawn just barely breaking she understood the gardener to be only now waking from rest. As if guided by Those Above, Black Forest Cookie’s idle eyes happened upon the refined trimming tool. It put a pep in her step, and she was giddy as gumdrops as she got to work collecting flowers for Their bouquet.
The wedding-perfect cherry-roses were peaceful in the creme garden. Black Forest Cookie was just as peaceable as she sliced the blooms to create the perfect wedding offering for Them. But one’s ideal wedding could not stop there.
The Cookie Kingdom was some ways away from her beloved steeple. She trudged through mallowy marshes, trekked equally black but exceptionally cakey forests, and sailed deeply blue gelatin seas. Her shortbread sailboat crumbled as she reached a bustling pier. To her excitement, it was indeed inhabited by fellow Cookies.
Her bouquet did not wilt, by the power of love, surely. Black Forest Cookie overheard a pair of cookies discussing their wedding. She knew that the fates had drawn their licorice strings into the most perfect knot for her. So she could have the most perfect wedding. So They could have the most perfect wedding.
Pink sugar and cream trapsed by a store window. Black Forest Cookie’s heart thumped. Could it be: a wedding cake? Nay, the doors to the brilliant store opened. Black Forest Cookie’s heart just couldn’t stop thumping.
Because this would be the person who helped Black Forest Cookie meet Them.
***
Wedding Cake Cookie spied a cluster of chocolate-covered gumballs. They were settled on the shelf as if no one had touched them since the beginning of Cookiekind. Inspiration had never struck Wedding Cake Cookie with such force before. At once she took her darkest of dark chocolate which she used for ribbons upon bouquets and dresses and began grinding it. Once it was ground into a fine paste, Wedding Cake Cookie slathered it across the gumballs. They were strung together with sugar string.
For some reason, though no client had ever stirred nerves in her before, Wedding Cake Cookie was sheepish about presenting the pearl necklace to Black Forest Cookie. To her relief, the other Cookie took the necklace with the utmost gusto. Once the pearls donned Black Forest Cookie’s neck, Wedding Cake Cookie gasped.
“My, my,” she said, without thinking. “You look good enough to eat!”
Oops, she thought, worrying hands over her mouth.
But Black Forest Cookie only smiled. “Don’t I?”
***
Later that night, Wedding Cake Cookie wasn’t able to get even a periwink of shut-eye. Some strawberry--no, cherry--red sensation was brewing inside her. Like a pair of hot eyes boring into her very soulstones. Though she tossed and turned, practiced breaths, sleep still evaded her. She threw her fondant covers off, but took the time to reshape them and the marshmallow for her head.
That “red” feeling grew as Wedding Cake Cookie progressed from her home to the streets of Cookie Kingdom. She tried to follow it as it stretched into chewy licorice in her icing heart.
The night sky in the Kingdom flattened out like new dough. Powdered sugar speckled the edges, though the purpled skies seemed to go on forever.
Forever, Wedding Cake Cookie lamented, is my favorite time.
She soon happened upon the special church that her latest client Black Forest Cookie was having her wedding. There, some force inside her burned like a thousand ovens. Instead of fear, Wedding Cake Cookie merely felt curiosity.
A brush of sodden cake cookie greeted her. It was no doubt Black Forest Cookie. Wedding Cake Cookie was careful in her approach, for the Cookie seemed to have fallen. While her bouquet was tarnished, the pearls around her neck remained.
To her surprise, it seemed Black Forest Cookie was expecting her, for at once, she lifted er head and explained all she could of her story. Going from Saint Pastry to here. Doing all of it. For Them.
***
“You see?” Black Forest Cookie said, breathlessly like she had just given a grand speech in front of all of Cookiekind. “Well, I do...”
She wanted to convince Wedding Cake Cookie of her insistence, of this importance. But the only way was if she foresaw the power They possessed the way Black Forest Cookie did. She finally let go of her bouquet, and it almost seemed to disintegrate like cotton candy in peculiar rain.
Wedding Cake Cookie, a haze of earthen chocolate dazzling her senses, could only nod. She was utterly mesmerized by the shivering, the mysterious ventures, and the incredible creativity of who might be her most favorite client of all.
“I do...too,” she repeated, pink with that same panting that had taken Black Forest Cookie.
Black Forest Cookie knew. This was the one. The one who would help her create the perfect wedding for Them: they were more than halfway there.
They kissed.
But as they did so, soft and decadent lips meeting as if one of them would be burnt to a crisp the next second…the moment had arrived.
Against Wedding Cake Cookie’s lips, Black Forest Cookie all at once became something else. She towered like a wedding cake herself, strong and imperious and looming. The sight of chocolate mixed with whipped icing and then more chocolate put Wedding Cake in such a state of awe. This was her purpose.
The ripples of cream and strewn cherries on the floor called Wedding Cake Cookie’s attention to them almost automatically. She deftly woven the cherries and cream back together. All that effort Black Forest Cookie took in her churchyard could never go to waste.
“Promise you’ll never forget me!” Wedding Cake Cookie called, throwing the reassembled bouquet towards the transformed Cookie.
And though she got no words back, she knew what the response would be.
I do.